RUMOURED "CORNER" IN NOVELS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1219, 30 August 1911, Page 5

RUMOURED "CORNER" IN NOVELS.

STRONG PROTESTS. (By TeloEripli.-SDecia! CnrresDomlent.) . Auckland, August 29. The Auckland booksellers,, in common with many others of their trade in tho Dominion, aro much concerned by tho announcement that' a syndicate, in which a New Zealand firm figures prominently, has been formed to obtain sole control of tho sale of many English works of fiction. Iho result, of course, will be that tho retail houses will be obliged to obtain their books through tho medium of the syndicate, instead of .getting them direct from the Home publishers. This is tho second Australasian syndicate formed in recent years,. the first having gained a control over . many popular American novels.

..faking to a reporter on the subject, Mr. W. h. Arey, of the firm of Wildman and A.rey, said his firm, as well as others strongly protested against the system of i\e;v Zealand and Australian publishing and bookselling firms getting a "corner" in books. For the past two years tho evil bad been creeping in,' and soon, unless active steps wore taken by those suffering, the book trade. would become monopolised by a few firms who carried on business, not only as wholesale agents but who ran a retail trade as well The only way to put a stop to this sort of thing/' said Mr. Arey, in conclusion, "is for the booksellers to hold meetings and send their united protest to tho Publishers' Association of Great Britain. If this is not sufficient, we shall nave to adopt more drastic measures and wo may, if necessary, go as far as to boycott the fiction controlled by the trust." i t>l '• i Lllmlstcn ' of Cliamptaloup and Bdmiston, was.also bitterly opposed to the formation of such syndicates, which he described as a serious restraint to